1. Ruonan Meng 02/11/16
Statement of Teaching Philosophy
Teaching, though challenging but exciting, requires teachers’ constant understanding on
the students and constant approaching to one self. Learning occurs from comprehensible
input into output, through interaction and negotiation while the gap that learners noticed is
filled (Schmidt, 1990). My personal goal as a language teacher is to strive to help my
students ‘s better achievement in their zone of proximal development. In order to achieve
that, I always strive to create a meaningful and supportive student-centered classroom
environment. Task-based language teaching, therefore, provided a natural context with
their relevant language, while exposed the students with as much more language as
possible. As such, I emphasize on the use of peer reflections, group work, and the use of
student writings as input materials in an attempt to sharpen their critical thinking skills.
Meanwhile, besides the focus on language skills, I also further explore out of their comport
zone on getting them immersed in less familiar areas including literature, poetry,
geography and archeology, while maintain strict routines on classroom management.
Based on my teaching experience in K-12 classrooms, I have learned to facilitate in
progressing from learners’ existing knowledge to their target achievement, with attention
to support their motivation along with classroom rapport. One exciting but scary fact in my
past teaching experience is that, usually what I did in the classroom was completely up to
me. When making a choice on a class content, one important thing is to get to know the
students, in groups and individually, in and outside the classroom. After securing the target
language and lesson objectives, it is then down to deciding how to construct the lessons
with tasks that would best serve their motivation in learning. Firstly, it is necessary to set
up a meaningful purpose. It is fully clear to me that if the activities were not meaningful, I
would be trapped in a quite passive position in instigating the students ‘s interior
motivation. Another way I found useful in instigating their motives is to find out their
preference in the activity formation. For instance, I found out their repetitive mistakes in
formatting past tense. I conducted a grammar lesson with a self-correction task to raise
their self-reflections on their errors. In order to prime their motivation, as I am fully aware
of their thirst for competition, we did a group competition, in which they are given choices
to earn points for their group by correcting each mistake. This task successfully worked in
raising their awareness in the target language. By providing students a purposeful task

2. Ruonan Meng 02/11/16
catering to their motivation, while giving them options in the task, it is almost guaranteed
to gain students’ full awareness and participation.
Besides getting to know the students’ learning needs and learning styles, I also tend to
include real-world materials to improve their language production, by immersing learning
into their everyday life. I included online resources, everyday news and the use of
technology frequently in the class. It is vital to lead the students to broaden their horizons
in getting to know more about the world, while build on their independent thinking skill.
This would also require teachers to stay informed to currents, while maintain flexible in
utilizing varied types of media sources. For instance, in a writing task, I included a public
service commercial in a composition class, followed by a structured peer survey and a
whole-class discussion, leading to their practice of writing a movie review.
Even the best-designed lesson would require strict classroom management skill to
monitor and manage the flow in class. On one hand, I emphasize on strict classroom
routines and regulations. I always intend to build mutual respects with my class. For
instance, I ask them to respect each other by raising hands before answers. During
teacher’s talk, I never start without making sure the class is quiet and ready. On the other
hand, I also maintain approachable to talk to and negotiate with. Besides information-
checking questions, concept-checking questions and Q & A sessions, I also emphasize on
students’ instant feedbacks, to make sure there has been constant communication going in
the class, while the lesson stays relative and meaningful for them.
It is necessary for a teacher to believe and care for the students. As a teacher who
strives to foster better learning and participating environment; who stays constantly
informed seeking more self-reflections and professional development; who stays flexible
and creative in constructing and implementing task-based student learning lessons; who
plays an equal role in building mutual respect and classroom rapport, I get more and more
obligated and eager to see their improvements, while keep promoting myself to achieve it
through striving the best out of my role to facilitate their learning.
Reference:
Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning1. Applied
linguistics, 11(2), 129-158.